Brucie Bonus

It may be the most clichéd, obvious, unfunny pun for a title that I’ve ever used. And I’m certainly not claiming to be the first to use it.

It’s safe, it’s obvious, but it’s not particularly exciting.

Which, funnily, makes it the most appropriate title I could have used.

Because that’s what Steve Bruce is.

He’s not going to introduce a style of football that reforms the game, he won’t make us into the most dangerous team in the division going forward, and he’s not going to promise the fans a cup and European football in 5 years.

And that’s a good thing.

Steve rather brings a sense of security, an aura of organisation, and an atmosphere of honesty and logic.

He stops the defence doing their best deer-in-headlights impression as soon as we are required to hold onto a lead, he gets the midfield working hard for each other, and he puts our attacking line into formations and partnerships that yield the greatest return.

On the pitch, he has the experience and tactical nous lacking in Tim Sherwood and Paul Lambert; and the honest, likeable, enthusiastic style in press conferences that Lambert, Garde, and Di Matteo (all of whom having a tendency to be bumbling and incomprehensible) all failed in. It’s genuinely refreshing to have a Villa manager that will both discuss the training and ideas the team have been working on, as well as being honest and self-critical when things haven’t gone our way.

To give an example, he’s held his hands up for isolating Jedinak in midfield against Wolves, and ever since then Miles has potentially been our most integral player. It’s this honesty and learning from mistakes that makes Bruce so damn likeable.

And it’s more than just talk. Steve’s effect on the pitch has been as obvious as Gabby’s diet.

11 points out of a possible 15 is some feat considering the lack of belief in the squad since he took over. Kodija looks capable of becoming the 20-goal-a-season striker we all hoped we’d signed, and it looks like he’s finally established a back 4, even if it meant the bold move of dropping our captain.

We seem to have abolished our curse of throwing away leads late into games, and have even began to steal some instead, and we’re finally not blindly fluffing several clear-cut chances per match.

To accomplish these things in such a short timescale - with a squad so low on confidence – is nothing short of remarkable.

Going forward, it’s interesting to see that Bruce clearly sees places in the squad for the current scapegoats and favourite of the boy-boys, Agbonlahor and Westwood.

Although January will be a better battleground to test this faith, and whilst I find it hyperbolic to call Agbonlahor “as good as any striker in the division”, there’s certainly no sense in dropping a Villa fan that has scored goals in the top division all of his life, even if he did disgrace himself last season. We just don’t have room for that luxury at the moment.

The same goes for Westwood. Fans are all to eager to highlight his short-comings, but he’s shown before that he is capable of holding his own in the Premier League, and we need all of the midfield firepower we can muster (until January at least). More importantly, he’s a hard-working, nice-natured Englishman, which is exactly the type of player Bruce has a soft spot for, so I wouldn’t expect to see the back of him anytime soon.

With all this praise-singing, it’s easy to forget that this was an appointment resisted by many.

Associations with bitter rivals are choppy waters to navigate for any football alumni entering a new club, and there aren’t too many rivalries more bitter than the one between ourselves and our Blue neighbours. Just look at the stir the McLeish appointment created before a contract was signed and a ball was kicked.

There are two key things to remember on this front.

Firstly, Bruce hasn’t squeezed into anything from the Blues’ club shop since 2007, almost a decade ago, and it’s high-time for bygones to be bygones. To give a sense of scale, Tony Blair was PM and England were just moving into the new Wembley.

More importantly, I’ve said it before and it’s worth repeating: We’re the biggest club in the division, but we’re far from good enough to be picky and in too much of a crisis to put emotion over logic.

Wins against Fulham and Reading - once considered a formality - had us stood on the Holte giving an emotional rendition of ‘Don’t Look Back in Anger’, in case you can’t tell how hard times have been for us as fans - and what our football means to us.

If you can’t get behind Bruce because of Blues, it’s time to grow up.

I don’t expect him to win us any silverware, but he’s easily the man for the job if we are to return to where we belong – he’s proved that himself in the month that he’s been here.

I personally see next season as the true reasonable target for promotion. I’d love to be proved wrong (for better not worse), but our season has only just begun – perhaps a little too late, and even with the expected foray into the January transfer window, I still see this as (yet another) transitional season.

For the time being, we should be content knowing we’re picking up forward momentum, and have finally, for me, appointed the right man.  

He is a focus on substance over style, and finally shows a significant, positive change in direction from within the club.

It only took 6 years, relegation, the constant shattering of incompetence records, an embarrassingly one-sided FA Cup final, and a change of Chairman to get us to there.

Match Review: Aston Villa 1-1 Leicester City

Everyone was in the same boat on this one.

We expected 0 points, but had a slither of hope we might just pick up an unexpected 3.

We got something in between.

And considering we got that against supposed 'title contenders', I'd say we can be happy. 

Not to say that Leicester turned up looking like table toppers - both teams put in a sloppy, physical display - and ignoring the first 25 minutes ours was actually superior.

We genuinely looked like threatening their goal, and if Jordan Veretout knew how to hit a ball further than the first man from a set piece, or if Ayew knew how to deliver a decent ball after beating his man, we easily could have got more from the game.

But that's what it boiled down to, a game of 'ifs'.

'If' Bunn hadn't saved the penalty; 'if' we didn't have goal-line technology; 'if' the ref had seen Huth swing at Libor; or 'if' Okore hadn't let the ball bounce for the goal, the game would have been totally different.

That's probably more a reflection of football itself than this one-off game, but when there's so many incidents that could have gone either way - a point is probably a fair result. 

Garde's decision to stick with the bold shake-up in the team sheet against Palace was a relief, and my faith in the Frenchmen is slowly growing every week. I found myself not questioning his decision to swap Gil for Gestede after an hour, a sub that would sparked a wave of disgust around the ground had Lambert or Sherwood made it, and it certainly payed dividends as Rudy ultimately found the back of the net (just about).

On a side note, I also finally saw how Leicester have gotten to where they have.

They have somehow managed to combine two of the best teams from 2008 to create a weird hybrid that nobody's quite sure how to play.

They have the incredibly fast pressing when out of possession, whilst hunting in packs of 2 and 3, that is genuinely reminiscent of Guardiola's Barcelona (don't laugh), mixed with the thuggish, in-your-face backbone of Tony Pulis' Stoke team, with players like Huth and Vardy, who have no problem at all swinging for players and pressuring officials. 

This is why they can turn up against 'elite' teams and compete - there's no fear.

But enough about their lot.

We're certainly showing there's some fight left in us, and if we are to have any hope at all of turning our season around, 4 points every 2 games is a good target to start from.

Focus must now shift to our next 3 league games. 

Albion away, West Ham away, and Norwich at home.

7 points is possible, and must be our target going into these games.

It's The Hope That Kills Ya'

El Chapo's been caught, Bowie's dead, and Aston Villa Football Club have won a game of association football.

It's been a weird week. 

I haven't written anything since September 1st, and to be honest it's because there's been very little to write about that hasn't already been said. 

When the only thing you can say about a game is "we were shit and deserved to lose", and hundreds of people are saying the exact same thing, every week, then there's little point in putting pen to paper and adding a drop to the ocean.

But last night against Palace - for the first time in months - Villa stirred and showed signs of life. 

We were controlling, attacking, and didn't panic while trying to hold a lead, very different to everything we've come to expect from what I can comfortably say is the worst Villa side I've ever seen.

Can we attribute this to Remi Garde?

In fairness, who'd have thought that playing a 'proper' centre forward - who can play a bit and has been tearing up the u21's - up front in Libor Kozak would improve our fortunes?

All of us, for months and months.

But at least Remi's finally seeming to get the picture. There's more to our side than just 'lump it to Rudy' and it's seeming like it might be finally starting to show. Players like Kozak and Gil who have been mercilessly overlooked in recent times not only have something to offer the team, but are perhaps people we should be looking to build the team around.

He's also showed that he has the ability to lay down authority when needed - something massively needed when you're trying to run through treacle like we are right now.

Somewhere between punishing Grealish for his unprofessionalism; finally dropping Guzan; and his straight-talking press conferences, Garde proved on Tuesday that the team still has spirit and are willing to fight for him - shown undoubtedly through the tireless, industrious display from the midfield 3 and the celebrations after the final whistle. 

Anyone who's been a Villa fan for longer than 6 months (and I can't imagine we've picked up many glory hunters in that time frame) will know that these 'turned the corner' displays often come to an abrupt halt 90 minutes later.

Saying that, me and my old man had agreed we wouldn't return to B6 until we thought the team could compete, and we've got tickets for Saturday.

It's the hope that kills ya'.